Taxation of corporate clothing

In order to prevent corporate clothing being used for other purposes, HMRC insist on the use of labels or logos to identify the clothing as corporatewear. At end-of-life, this can severely hinder the garments’ reuse, and is seen by many in the industry to be a somewhat out-of-date policy.

The trend for a lot of corporatewear is towards uniforms that are less recognisable as such, and this makes it more likely that wearers will use the garments outside of the work environment. HMRC insist the logo or label should be ‘prominent and permanent’, to identify the garment as a uniform.

A major problem arising from this for corporatewear users lies in the interpretation of the regulations by different Tax Offices. ‘Prominent and permanent’ is seen differently by individual officers, and this can cause complications, particularly if a company is operating nationwide.